Her name is Annabelle, she is my beautiful daughter, and she happens to have Autism.
I recall her third birthday - a day when she broke a dining room chair because of singing "Happy Birthday" as well as the removal of all her clothing as the children were arriving for the party.
I recall the panic and fear I felt when I took her in public. We'd go to a city park, the beach, a mall parking lot - she ran and didn't know where to stop.
Autism was dismissed by our pediatrician. It didn't "look" like the Autism the doctor had seen previously so she comforted me with assurances that Annabelle was simply strong-willed.
I didn't accept that. I kept searching. I got her Speech, Occupational Therapy and an Autism Consultant. A year later Annabelle is in a typical pre-school, receives birthday invitations and is loved by not only me, but her teachers and classmates as well. She gets birthday invites. She rides horses. She holds my hand in a parking lot without running away.
She has come so far. And we still have so far to go. But we will get there, all of us - together.
Tallahassee, FL
